[Talk-us] Specifications (was: Bay Area trailer parks: "hamlet" ? Also neighborhoods & cities)

[Michal Migurski]

On Nov 28, 2008, at 11:51 PM, Alan Brown wrote:

> >Using the hamlet value seems like a forced fit. Why not just use  
> place=neighborhood then? So >what if it's not "approved"? Use it  
> widely, then request for it to be rendered. Problem solved.
>
> If I were to create a new model for something, I'd create a new  
> category for "apartment complexes and trailer parks" sooner than a  
> new category distinguishing neighborhoods from hamlets.   (I would  
> also tend to represent apartment complexes and trailer parks as  
> polygons, rather than points -> landuse=residential +  
> name="whatever").

I was thinking rather of deleting the points, and replacing them with  
polygons tagged residential. Kind of a moot point at the moment, since  
Potlatch is refusing to let me save any edits - anyone else having  
this problem?


> What OSM is calling hamlets was probably something like "named  
> place" in TIGER - very generic.  If you increase the number of ways  
> you categorize named places, you should expect the categories to be  
> clear enough that people will apply them properly, and regularly.  I  
> think the biggest distinction between hamlet and neighborhoods is  
> that a hamlet would be rural and unincorporated and often lacking  
> strict boundaries, and a neighborhood would be a named section  
> within a city - and unincorporated and often lacking strict  
> boundaries.  The consequences of lumping them together are not  
> terrible, because you would tend to use the data similarly (use the  
> same font, appear at the same zoom levels).

Since I have some experience rendering OSM data, I know how much of a  
hassle it is to keep up with shifting tags and a large variety of  
overlapping categorizations. It sounds like hamlet is an appropriate  
way to deal with sections of town, I think it would make sense to keep  
that in place.

"Neighborhood" could have the unfortunate side effect of requiring  
polygons, and as you say neighborhood boundaries are uniquely  
subjective, moreso I think than other designations.

-mike.

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michal migurski- mike at stamen.com
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